An image processing apparatus is provided that can accurately and rapidly perform color/monochrome judgment for print image data. In the image forming apparatus, a command analyzing unit interprets externally received PDL data, and a first color/monochrome judging unit performs the color/monochrome judgment based on an attribute of an image object. When a data type of the attribute is not raster image data and color information is monochrome, it is immediately judged that the image is monochrome. Only when the first color/monochrome judging unit judges that the image is color, a second color/monochrome judging unit performs the color/monochrome judgment every time a rendering unit generates band data. If at least one pixel of color data exists, it is judged that the image is color. With such a configuration, the color/monochrome judgment can be performed accurately and rapidly.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. An image processing apparatus that controls a predetermined image forming apparatus to output an image corresponding to bitmap data converted from predetermined print data, comprising: a first judging unit that judges whether the image is color or monochrome according to attribute data obtained based on the print data indicating the attribute of the image; a bitmap data generating unit that generates color bitmap data based on the print data if the first judging unit judges that the image is color, and generates monochrome bitmap data based on the print data if the first judging unit judges that the image is monochrome; a second judging unit that judges whether the image is color or monochrome based on the color bitmap data generated by the bitmap data generating unit; and a print controlling unit that controls the image forming apparatus to output a color or monochrome image depending on the result of the judgment of the first and second judging units, based on the bitmap data generated by the bitmap data generating unit.
2. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein if the second judging unit judges that the image is monochrome, the print controlling unit controls the image forming apparatus to output a monochrome image based only on monochrome bitmap data included in the color bitmap data generated by the bitmap data generating unit.
3. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first judging unit judges whether the image is color or monochrome based on the attribute data including at least a data type and color information of the image.
4. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 3 , wherein the first judging unit judges that the image is color if the data type is the bitmap data or if the color information is color, and judges that the image is monochrome if the data type is data other than the bitmap data and the color information is monochrome.
5. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the second judging unit sequentially performs the judgment of whether the image is color or monochrome one-by-one for a plurality of the band data that should compose the color bitmap data generated by the bitmap data generating unit, and omits the judgment when once the image is judged to be color.
6. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , further comprising: an intermediate data generating unit that generates a plurality of intermediate data for generating a plurality of the band data that should compose the bitmap data by the bitmap data generating unit, based on the print data; and a blank attribute adding unit that adds an attribute indicating blank to intermediate data not including data representing the image in the plurality of the intermediate data, wherein the second judging unit omits the judgment of whether the image is color or monochrome for the band data corresponding to the intermediate data with the attribute indicating blank added.
7. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 6 , wherein the bitmap data generating unit sequentially generates the bitmap data for each one of the band data and omits the generation of the band data corresponding to the intermediate data with the attribute indicating blank added.
8. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , further comprising a data compressing unit that sequentially compresses a plurality of the band data that should compose a portion of the bitmap data generated by the bitmap data generating unit, wherein the second judging unit sequentially, one-by-one for the plurality of the band data, compares a compressed data size of the band data compressed by the data compressing unit with a preliminary stored compressed data size in the case of compressing the band data not including the data indicating the image by the data compressing unit and omits the judgment of whether the image is color or monochrome for the band data that have the compressed data size of the compressed band data identical to the preliminarily stored compressed data size.
9. The image processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the second judging unit judges whether band data in the image is color or monochrome, thereby judging whether the image is color or monochrome.
10. A controlling method of an image processing apparatus controlling a predetermined image forming apparatus to output an image corresponding to bitmap data converted from predetermined print data, comprising: a first judging step of judging whether the image is color or monochrome according to attribute data obtained based on the print data indicating the attribute of the image; a bitmap data generating step of generating color bitmap data based on the print data if it is judged in the first judging step that the image is color and generating monochrome bitmap data based on the print data if it is judged in the first judging step that the image is monochrome; a second judging step of judging whether the image is color or monochrome based on the color bitmap data generated in the bitmap data generating step; and a print controlling step in which the image forming apparatus is controlled to output a color or monochrome image depending on the result of the judgment of the first and second judging steps, based on the bitmap data generated in the bitmap data generating step.
11. The controlling method as defined in claim 10 , wherein in the second judging step, judgment is made as to whether band data in the image is color or monochrome, thereby judging whether the image is color or monochrome.
12. A program embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium for an image processing apparatus that controls a predetermined image forming apparatus to output an image corresponding to bitmap data converted from predetermined print data to perform the steps comprising: a first judging step of judging whether the image is color or monochrome according to attribute data obtained based on the print data indicating the attribute of the image; a bitmap data generating step of generating color bitmap data based on the print data if it is judged in the first judging step that the image is color and generating monochrome bitmap data based on the print data if it is judged in the first judging step that the image is monochrome; a second judging step of judging whether the image is color or monochrome based on the color bitmap data generated in the bitmap data generating step; and a print controlling step in which the image forming apparatus is controlled to output a color or monochrome image depending on the result of the judgment of the first and second judging steps, based on the bitmap data generated in the bitmap data generating step.
13. The program as defined in claim 12 , wherein in the second judging step, judgment is made as to whether band data in the image is color or monochrome, thereby judging whether the image is color or monochrome.
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April 10, 2007
January 10, 2012
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